CITY OF SYRACUSE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 3 August 1943, Page 4

CITY OF SYRACUSE

GREAT HISTORIC INTEREST EARLY GREEK SETTLEMENT. WARS OF 2000 YEARS AGO. The city of Syracuse, occupied by Allied forces, on the south-eastern coast of Sicily, played a stirring part in ancient classical history, and was the home of a number of men whose names have been famous for more than 2000 years. It was one of the earliest Greek settlements on the island, and became the chief Greek city of ancient Sicily. Syracuse was founded from Corinth probably in the year 734 8.C., but it was not until the Fifth Century B.C. i that it became the centre of a great dominion over both Greeks and Sicels, who were the original inhabitants of the land. Gelon, successor to Hippocrates, tyrant of Gela, took possession of Syracuse without opposition in the year 485. and made it the seat of his power.

He gave citizenship both to mercenaries and to settlers from Greece and added to the population the inhabitants of other cities conquered by him. His general rule was mild, and he won fame as the champion of Hellas by his great victory over the Carthaginians at Himera.

POETS AND PHILOSOPHERS, Gelon’s brother and successor, Hieron, kept up the power of the city and won himself a name by his encouragement of poets, especially Aeschylus and Simonides, and philosophers. His victories made him the special subject of the songs of Pindar and Bacchylides. When his power passed to his brother, Thrasybulus, the freedom of Syracuse was won by a combined movement of Greeks and Sicels. Great prosperity followed, and popular government was not seriously threatened for more than 50 years. For a time the main interest of Greek history gathered round the Athenian attack on Syracuse, which lasted from 415 to 413. Alcibiades was one of the commanders of the first Athenian fleet to blockade the city, and Demosthenes one of the commanders of the second. The Syracusans sullied the glory of their final triumph by putting Demosthenes to death.

OTHER HISTORIC PAGES. Other pages in the history of the ancient city tell of its successful resistance under Dionysius I. to the formidable Carthaginians, of its powerful fleet, and of its capture by the Romans in spite of the ingenious devices that Archimedes contrived for its defence.

After that Syracuse became simply one of the provincial cities of Rome’s empire, though it retained much of its Greek character, and many of its finest public buildings. Cicero often speaks of it as a particularly splendid and beautiful city, still in his own day the seat of art and culture.

■The Apostle Paul tarried for three days at Syracuse when, after being shipwrecked on Malta, he continued his journey to Rome. The city never regained its former importance after its destruction by the Saracens in 878 A.D.

With such a history it is only natural that the city and neighbourhood of Syracuse should be a rare treasurehouse for archaeologists. Remains of its Doric temples date back to the beginning of the Sixth Century 8.C., and are> of the highest importance -in the history of design. A near by point carries the ruins of a mighty fortress, the most imposing that has come down from the Greek period. Temples, catacombs and amphitheatres are of the greatest interest. I